StarCraft II accounts being stolen

By Robert Purchese Published 3 August, 2010

Phishers dangling the bait.

StarCraft II fans beware: there are fraudsters pretending to be Blizzard that want to steal your Battle.net account.

These people are referred to as "phishers" and they send authentic-looking emails promising a StarCraft II CD-key, according to Siliconera.

One specific scam creates a phony Battle.net log-in screen and directs you there from a step-by-step CD-key activation procedure in the email. Any usernames or passwords submitted will fall straight into the delicate-yet-dastardly hands of the scammers.

How to spot a fraud? Check you're on the Battle.net official URL when logging in, and always double-check the sender's email address for authenticity. By and large, Blizzard and Battle.net won't send many account-related emails.

Not bought it yet? You're holding out for the Eurogamer review, aren't you?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Gallilee #1 2 years ago

    Got one of those mails two days after registering a battle.net account and buying SC2 online. In the mail they wrote that my account was almost successfully moved from [the private email address I registered with] to a hotmail address. All I had to do to complete the move was to log in to battle net following the link they provided me with. Just throw those mails in the trash.

  • bad09 #2 2 years ago

    and they wonder why people download pirate versions where none of this crap needed in the first place....

  • Mcstrife #3 2 years ago

    Would all that crap be needed when there was no piracy bad09?

  • tossetaz #4 2 years ago

    Use gmail, it filters this shit!

  • Gaol #5 2 years ago

    Ever since I linked my old WoW account to Battle.net, the attached email address has had a steady stream of emails phishing for online passwords for mmorpgs. These started the very day I signed up to battle.net and are all targeted at online game accounts. Blizzard should be called to account on it.

  • Alf-Life #6 2 years ago

    Got the following email. Would normally not fall for such obvious phishing, but it coincided with my buddy at Blizzard writing that I should play Starcraft II on my Facebook one day before... I thought he'd bought it for me, and it was his credit card number. Confused me for a few minutes. :p

    -----

    Hello, thank you for shopping at the Blizzard Store!

    StarCraft II®: Wings of Liberty™: ***7013775316344590589***

    To use this key to activate the game, simply follow these instructions:

    Create a Battle.net account (or if you already have one, log in) at [link url=http://us.worldofwarcraft.coderedemption.net/login.html
    ]http://us.worldofwarcraft.coderedemption...[/link]
    Verify your e-mail address. (If you have previously verified your address, skip this step.) From the main Account Management page, click the 'verify this e-mail address' link. Then, check your e-mail account for a verification e-mail. Click the link in this e-mail to verify your e-mail address.
    Return to the     Battle.net account management page, then click on 'Code Redemption'.
    Enter the above CDKey in the code field.
    Once you have successfully redeemed this code, you will be able to play the game.

    NOTE: If you have previously chosen to gift your digital purchase, attaching this key to their Battle.net account will prevent you from being able to redeem this key with your Battle.net account.

    ===========================================
    Purchase Receipt
    ===========================================
    Customer Account: theygotmyrealemailad dress@yahoo.co.uk
    Order Date: 2010-8-2
    Order #: 4411392

    (1) StarCraft II®: Wings of Liberty™ - $59.99

    Credit Card Number : ****-****-****-5284
    Credit Card Type : Visa
    Item Subtotal: $59.99
    Tax: $0.00
    Shipping & Handling: $0.00
    Shipping Tax: $0.00
    Grand Total: $59.99
    ===========================================

    If you have any questions or concerns about your order, please contact us at:

    Phone: Toll-free at (1-800-592-5499)
    Website: [link url=http://us.world ofwarcraft.net/account
    ]http://us.world ofwarcraft.net/account
    [/link]

    Live phone support is available seven days a week, 8:00AM - 8:00PM Pacific Time.

    Thanks for shopping with us!
    Blizzard Customer Service
    Message Identity ID: jdyv.wedp.zn0bpv5k5owlbu



    Battle.net Account Login
    us.worl dofwarcraft.coderedemption.net

  • jonfon #7 2 years ago

    "Wallet Inspector!"
    "Oh, here you go. I think you'll find that's all in order"
    "Ha ha. I can't believe that actually worked. Yoink"

    "Waaaait a minute... That's not the wallet inspector..."

  • bad09 #8 2 years ago

    "Would all that crap be needed when there was no piracy bad09? "

    Well it is a chicken and egg situation for true but all it does is encourage the continuation of piracy and situations like this merely highlight the benefits of pirating to consumers.

    Don't get me wrong I'm not condoning piracy, but with things like this (which goes on with Steam accounts as well I believe) and restrictive DRM you'd be a fool not to at least understand there are unfair benefits to the eye patch route, which is the wrong message in every possible way.
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/10 @ 10:34

  • TeaFiend #9 2 years ago

    A CD key and having to use an online sign in is a terrible sin that people cannot possibly imagine using? This is not restrictive DRM.

  • bad09 #10 2 years ago

    @ TeaFiend

    While we all do it begrudgingly (even on the consoles now) many older gamers would argue needing to set up an account and give over personal details to companies merely to play video games is stupidly restrictive but hey horses for courses.

    Like I said I'm not making excuses for pirates merely understanding the games industries own protections can actually hinder what they want to achieve. Hey the music industry got it wrong to so there is no shame in it.

  • darkmorgado #11 2 years ago

    Ever since I linked my old WoW account to Battle.net, the attached email address has had a steady stream of emails phishing for online passwords for mmorpgs. These started the very day I signed up to battle.net and are all targeted at online game accounts. Blizzard should be called to account on it.

    That's the most retarded thing I've heard in quite a while. Why should Blizzard be held responsible for the illegal activities of people trying to steal from their customer base? It's got nothing to do with Blizzard. The most they can do is try and track these people down and bring them to account, but as most of them are in China there is very little that they can do.

    Stuff like this goes on all the time. Scammers will latch on to anything to try and steal money from people; it's not as if phishing didn't exist before Battle.net.

  • UncleLou #12 2 years ago

    Don't get me wrong I'm not condoning piracy, but with things like this (which goes on with Steam accounts as well I believe) and restrictive DRM you'd be a fool not to at least understand there are unfair benefits to the eye patch route, which is the wrong message in every possible way.

    That's a bit like saying one should steal things in shops rather than use a credit card or pay cash because your cc details might get abused or your money stolen. I am not trying to make a "downloading = stealing" point here, it's just a fact of life that being honest and not criminal usually comes with disadvantages.

    And battle.net as such really isn't a hurdle, and arguably needed for the whole online aspect anyway.

  • SAMagic #13 2 years ago

    Phishers after WOW accounts is because they have gold and items, but what do they get out of SC2 accounts?

    Am I going to get a guy called XieXie2000 messaging me with offers of free minerals and siege tank upgrades?

  • bad09 #14 2 years ago

    @ UncleLou

    Very true, but at the end of the day these are merely video games, if we are honest with ourselves just toys and entertainment for the young and old . As an example how would you feel if Warner or Fox required personal details to watch a Blu? Or you needed an online account to listen to your CDs?

    While I myself do it with Steam, EA, Ubi (before the boycott) I find setting up all these different accounts merely to play computer games rather tiresome and can clearly see why people don't bother paying for the privilege of handing over details to all these different companies.

    People clearly don't like that point of view from marking me down but as the saying goes, the truths hurts doesn't it?

  • TheMoonRat #15 2 years ago

    It's clearly VERY easy for the phishers to farm the e-mail addresses of genuine customers as they sign up / link their e-mail address to battle.net. The ease of this farming is something Blizzard CAN do something about.

  • dingo75 #16 2 years ago

    That's the most retarded thing I've heard in quite a while. Why should Blizzard be held responsible for the illegal activities of people trying to steal from their customer base? It's got nothing to do with Blizzard. The most they can do is try and track these people down and bring them to account, but as most of them are in China there is very little that they can do.

    It's an open secret that something fishy's going on at Blizzard.
    A shit-ton of WoW accounts that are / were inactive / not used for a long time have been hijacked + been put authenticators on them in the last months.
    How should someone know about INACTIVE accounts that don't even display in the armory if he hadn't access to the database somehow / a leak in Blizzard?
    Why should I get a shit-ton of spam on an email account that I kept out of email lists etc. successfully for years the day after I linked it to B.Net?
    -> Someone in Blizzard is selling this data.

  • witchdrash #17 2 years ago

    Two points, do people still fall for these things?? Limited sympathy if they do, it's a very well publicised scam. And as tech savvy gamers we should be the least gullible.

    Second blizzard should be called into account, they are clearly exposing emails via battle.net as I got zero spam messages about any blizzard game until I linked my wow account to battle.net and now I get 50 odd a day....
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/10 @ 11:25

  • UncleLou #18 2 years ago

    While I myself do it with Steam, EA, Ubi (before the boycott) I find setting up all these different accounts merely to play computer games rather tiresome and can clearly see why people don't bother paying for the privilege of handing over details to all these different companies.

    I see your point (and didn't neg you, btw.), but I find battle.net and Steam in particular have hit the right balance between their own interests (less piracy) and consumer advantages. That I can, for example, register my 10 years old Diablo 2 CD keys and download the game at any given time to any PC or Mac I want to is great. So is the whole online aspect of SC2. I understand their need for this, and as long as I have the feeling they're doing what's possible to make it as pleasant for me as possible, I don't have a problem with it.

    EA's system, on the other hand, with the DLC and whatnot, is a bit of a pain in the arse, but I guess everybody draws the line somewhere else.

  • TeaFiend #19 2 years ago

    @Bad09:
    You can create your battle.net account then never sign in, play offline. Problem?

    The music industry may not have it wrong, heard of the little things like itunes and spotify?

  • iamian #20 2 years ago

    +1 @SAMagic

    Phishers after WOW accounts is because they have gold and items, but what do they get out of SC2 accounts?

    Exactly what I was thinkning when I read that... Is it just so the farmers can get access to a battle.net account?

  • CaptainKid #21 2 years ago

    Read about sketchy Blizzard security before and seriously considering not buying Starcraft 2 after reading this.

    Also, I already have Steam and don't want to become part of yet another online platform, that's one of the reasons I don't buy EA online games anymore.
    Edited by 2 at 03/08/10 @ 11:39

  • witchdrash #22 2 years ago

    @iamian that would be my guess, I can't see them getting much benefit for hijacking Starcraft accounts, but if it's a battle.net account and the user then also has a wow account then they can steal that. Possibly try and sell the account as well for a couple of quid? But it would get reclaimed pretty quick.

  • bad09 #23 2 years ago

    @ TeaFiend

    I have no problem merely pointing out the obvious. online or offline You are still giving these companies personal details just to play a video game (details that have been abused in this case).

    I said the music industry got it wrong not have it wrong, they found out a while back restricting people was foolish, sadly so many people had become used to obtaining DRM free music from other sources they still haven't recovered and have try new models like spotify (which I agree is a smart move).

    The movie and games industry will learn this to....eventually
    Edited by 2 at 03/08/10 @ 12:21

  • iamian #24 2 years ago

    @witchdrash
    Ah - of course! I was thinking more along of them obtaining the battle.net id and then opening their own Wow account on it for bots/farming/whatever as they couldn't open them normally due to whatever restrictions Blizzard has in place...

    Your explaination makes more sense!

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #25 2 years ago

    As someone said they are purly after you battlenet account just to use in WoW weather you just have SC or not, same thing will happen with Diablo, yes it's Blizzard's falut in allowing the system to be conprimised this badly, a simple solution would be for Blizzard to take it on the chin a little and package the authenicator with any and all products which use battlenet (expantions excluded).

    However the problem is a double egded sword as people DO fall for the phising scams, in game whispers and willinging post their destails on sites which show their primary emails and/or sign up to WoW's (or any any game really) 'guild hosting' sites using the same logins as they do with WoW (which do get attacked on a regular basis), so the scammers WILL continue to phish and scam all the time because they will hook an account sooner or later.

    To be fair the problem isn't limited to Blizzard and battlenet, theres plenty of spam trying to take NCSoft accounts too, and resently I got a fake EA mail about my WAR account since the move from GoA's servers to EA, it's only a matter of time when the SoE, Square Enix, and others get 'faked'.

    Until people do wise up to phising it's not going to go away, best bet TBH atm is the 'duh' route, use different passwords for EVERYTHING, keep business/personal and gaming emails to two seperate adresses and if you want to play a Blizzard product, get an authenicator. Just boycotting Blizzard wont really keep you games from getting hacked in the end, unless you are carefull 100% you might as well boycott the whole net
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/10 @ 12:38

  • Sildur #26 2 years ago

    Where's the review guys!? I've finished the single player and you guys must have been playing the beta!?

  • Sharzam #27 2 years ago

    funnily enourgh my battle.net email is at gmail but I get scams to my hotmail adresse. yes folks I use my hotmail adresse when on forums etc. only stuff like banks, shops and blizzard get my gmail one.

    makes it very easy to spot the dodge ones.

  • Moz #28 2 years ago

    As far as having to sign up to multiple services (Steam, Battle.net etc) that's just a continuation of the open platform that is PC gaming. Steam has managed to get a decent number of devs to sign up making it the best choice if you want to keep everything in one place. But at the same time you can see why Blizzard aren't on Steam as why pay Valve to use their service when Blizzard already have their own thanx to WOW.

    PC gaming as taken some serious knocks thanx to piracy, which has lead to more and more games only being made for consoles.

    Life would be easier if all PC games used the same DRM but it's never going to happen so just be happy that you can have 90% of your games covered by Steam and the rest you just have to choose on a game by game basis if the game is worth the "hassle" of create an account with that company.

  • Sunyavadin #29 2 years ago

    Simplest way to spot scams:


    Anything published by Activision BEING OFFERED FOR FREE.

  • vijay_UK #30 2 years ago

    Sildur,

    Gamespot have it up:

    [link url=http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ starcraft2/review.html?tag=topslot;title;1
    ]http://uk .gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starc...[/link]

    9.5/10

  • Acrid #31 2 years ago

    I get these emails everyday telling me that there's problems with my WOW account, I haven't played WOW for over 2 years you morons

  • Marshall2008 #32 2 years ago

    Get an authenticator, either buy one from Blizz or get the free one on your phone or iPod touch. Then the thieves can't get access even if they know your email and password.

    Of course, if you are thick enough to fall for a phishing scam you would be best to disconnect your PC from the internet, box it up and put it up the loft for your own safety.
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/10 @ 16:09

  • Kerome #33 2 years ago

    Tbh, i've only ever had phishing attacks sent to email adresses ive used for registering with internet forums. Aionsource, mmosite, to name a couple that I can identify for certain.

  • craziii #34 2 years ago

    HA, who falls for these? the moment you created your account the company knows the info already, why would they ask you for it in an email???!!!

    edit: like all scams, the greedy ppl always fall for it. omfgbbq, free cd key!
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/10 @ 20:08